The vertical rolls of a universal rolling mill, in which the vertical rolls are rotatably mounted in a journal block, can be driven to avoid problems when these rolls are engaged by the oncoming billet, bloom ore previously rolled body.
In practice the vertical rolls of a universal rolling mill are often not driven although when a drive has been provided, it usually was of the drag type where the vertical rolls are frictionally entrained by circumferential surfaces of a horizontal roll as described in German Patent 11 18 724.
With this drive the vertical rolls are already placed in rotation before the first pass of the rolled product to avoid impacts on the first pass which can lead to damage.
The geometry of the roll gap requires that the vertical rolls engage the sides or flanges of an I-section in the roll gap before the horizontal rolls engage the cross member or web of the I-section.
The known drive for the vertical rolls requires either outer support of the vertical rolls, i.e. an abandonment of a two-side axle support as described in German Patent 93 321, or an adjusting device for the vertical rolls which must be supplemented by a device to temporarily press the vertical rolls on the end surfaces of the horizontal rolls between passes axially parallel to the horizontal rolls (German Patent 11 18 724).